Brown Bagging It

The latest in my frugal lifestyle is brown bagging my lunch. Well it's actually a really cute pink and black lunch bag from Target boutique, but still brown bagging non the less. I started doing the math on my spending about 3 months ago, realizing that I needed to understand exactly where my money was going. Lo and behold, I found that I was spending on average $50 per week on lunches alone. If I added in the coffee and breakfasts, which I sometimes purchased, this could easily hit the $60 - 70 range. I almost got sick. That is a lot of money going to food, something I will never get a return on my investment. So for the last month I've been taking my lunch almost everyday and eating most of my breakfasts at home. This has been quite the change in that I go to the grocery store and spend about $100 per week so I wonder if I truly am saving money. However, the grocery bill is for two people for a week and includes dinners so yes, I am saving money. Then we need to actually eat the food that I purchased. This was difficult the first couple weeks but we have it pretty down pat now. I threw away a lot of food at first. I would purchase the groceries and they would go bad before we got to eating them. Now we truly don't go out so that is saving us money.

Now, don't get me wrong, it has been hard to watch my friends go out to lunch while I'm at the microwave heating up last night's dinner. There are moments when I feel left out of the conversations because I don't go to lunch and get the scoop. But then I remember that God doesn't want me gossipping, He doesn't want me spending frivolously and He wants me to have a great life. So missing the gossip and being a good steward of God's money, now that is where I want to be.

The extra cash has gone to paying down my debt. It is working too. I still feel stressed about the pending layoffs but I believe by the time I'd be let go, I will have my two smallest credit cards paid off and the last one on track for a large payoff once I get another job. So I say Bon Appetit my friends, bring the lunch and pay off your debt. It's amazing the freedom you find for yourself in this small act of frugality.